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Swiss President Ueli Maurer will travel to Washington to meet with Donald Trump on Thursday after receiving a surprise invitation.

The meeting between Trump and Mauer, who is Switzerland’s finance minister and current holder of the rotating Swiss presidency, was announced by the White House press office on Wednesday.

Statement from @PressSec the Press Secretary Regarding the Visit of His Excellency Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss Confederation@realDonaldTrump President Donald J. Trump will meet with the President of the Swiss Confederation Ueli Maurer at the White House on May 16, 2019 pic.twitter.com/pr38fYd3My

Before that cancelled meeting, Maurer had noted that the US is, alongside the EU, Switzerland's most important trading partner.

The partnership between the two countries should now be made concrete within the framework of a free trade agreement, Maurer told Zurich regional television station Tele Züri at the time.

The idea of a free trade agreement between Switzerland and the US has been on the cards since at least early 2018 when the then Swiss president, Alain Berset, met with Trump at that year’s Davos event.

In April this year, Swiss economy minister Guy Parmelin met with US Trade Representative Robert Emmet Lighthizer with two agreeing to launch expert studies into a free trade agreement.

Among the stumbling blocks to any agreement is the agriculture issue, according to Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger. There are concerns that the US could force Switzerland to green light genetically modified products, which would be problematic for the Alpine country.

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